If you only have 30 seconds, there is time – using this book – to make sense of the science behind the seeming vagaries of the weather, the controversies, predictions and forecasts for climate change that shape our day-to-day experiences of the great outdoors. Ever since Aristotle first tried to explain the forces that seem to fall from the heavens, meteorology has opened up the study of weather, and caused disputes over the reasons why seasons change, where precipitation falls, why winds blow and when the sun shines. From halcyon days to hurricanes, super cells to silver linings, global warming to giant hailstones, here is the ultimate guide to a near universal preoccupation: what’s the weather like?

About the Author

Professor Adam Scaife is head of Monthly to Decadal Prediction at the UK Met Office and honorary visiting Professor at Exeter University. He investigates mechanisms and predictability of weather and climate and has over 20 years experience in modelling the atmosphere with computer models. He has published around 100 scientific papers in leading journals and his recent studies include exciting new evidence for long range predictability of winter weather.

His work has helped understand how the freezing European winters of the 1960s gave way to the mild, wet winters of the 1990s and how other effects like El Niño and solar variability affect our climate. Professor Scaife was recently awarded the Lloyd’s of London Science of Risk Research Prize for Climate Change research and the L.G. Groves prize for Meteorology. He regularly communicates the latest meteorological science to the public via television, newspapers and other media.